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After the outbreak of the First World War the bravery of Croydon troops was needed once more, and the battalion was deployed to the North West Frontier of India, where German envoys tried to stir the Afghans into fighting in that corner of the British Empire.

For their efforts in this far-flung frontier, the unit was awarded further battle honours.

British troops landing at Suvla on the Aegean coast of the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey, before the August offensive of the Gallipoli campaign, August 1915. (Image: (Photo by Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images))

More would follow as soldiers from the borough were sent to one of the bloodiest military disasters in British history.

Croydon soldiers were thrust straight into the action at The Gallipoli Campaign during the First World War – an invasion conceived by Winston Churchill which took place between February 1915 and January 1916 – which saw thousands trapped on the beaches of the Turkish coast.

It was an unsuccessful attempt by the allied powers to control the sea route from Europe to Russia during the war.

Turkish forces inflicted many casualties on the The Queen's regiment, which bravely fought against the heat, fires, artillery shells and terrible conditions.

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The war was not over for the unit though, and further battle honours followed as soldiers were deployed to fight in Egypt.

Croydon soldiers would also see action in the mud-choked battlefields of France before the war was out, where gas and fierce artillery made for a hellish campaign.

Visitors look at the gravestones of British soldiers who were killed during the Gallipoli Campaign (Image: (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images))

Statues commending the bravery of Croydon troops in the First World War still stand in Croydon Minster.

After just a few years of peace the brave volunteer unit would be fighting enemy forces much closer to home.

The 4 Battalion of the Queen’s was transformed with their fellow battalions into an artillery unit whose purpose was to take down the German planes which were dispatched nightly to rain down explosives on London during The Blitz.

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As the war came to a close the unit would be deployed once again in France and in Belgium, and even on board ships during the invasion of Normandy, used as an artillery unit.

They would guard the skies as they had once guarded the frontier of the Empire.

In 1961 the unit was amalgamated along with the rest of the regiment into the Queen’s Royal Regiment, bringing the history of the unit to an end although its exploits are still recorded in statues and insignia inside the Croydon Minster.